Best Lab Management Software

Matrix Gemini is Autoscribe's laboratory information management system, and its defining claim is being fully configurable through configuration tools rather than through custom development.

That distinction determines the long-term cost of owning a LIMS more than any feature does. Laboratory workflows are highly specific, so every LIMS deployment involves adaptation. Where that adaptation is done by writing code, three things follow: the vendor or a consultant must do it, changes require another project every time the lab's work evolves, and upgrading the base system risks breaking the customisations. Laboratories routinely end up frozen on an old version because upgrading would mean redoing years of bespoke work.

Configuration through supplied tools changes that arithmetic. The lab can adapt the system itself as its work changes, and configurations are designed to survive upgrades.

The product range reflects different laboratory situations. Matrix Gemini LIMS Express is presumably a lighter entry point, Matrix Gemini LIMS Stability addresses stability testing specifically, a web portal provides external access, and a hosted edition removes infrastructure responsibility.

Stability testing deserving its own edition makes sense, since it is a distinct discipline in pharmaceutical and consumer product work: samples are stored under controlled conditions and tested on a predetermined schedule over months or years, which is a scheduling and reminder problem quite unlike routine sample throughput.

Pristima Web is published as a preclinical LIMS, addressing a further specialism.

Additional LIMS modules extend the core, and demos can be booked. Pricing is not published, which is standard for laboratory informatics quoted on users, modules and validation requirements.

LabCollector is laboratory information management software built as a core system plus a large range of add-on modules, covering storage inventory and biobanking, reagents and supplies management, barcoding and labelling, compliance, data logging, a query builder and central store management.

The modular structure suits laboratories better than an all-inclusive platform does, because laboratory requirements vary enormously by discipline. A biobank needs sample storage tracking with freezer locations, aliquot genealogy and chain of custody. An analytical chemistry lab needs reagent tracking, instrument logs and method records. A research lab needs an electronic notebook more than it needs either. Buying only the modules that match the work avoids paying for a platform sized for someone else's discipline.

Storage inventory and biobanking as the headline module reflects where the hardest tracking problem sits. A sample in a biobank has a physical location down to the box and position in a freezer, a parent sample it was derived from, consent conditions governing its use and a temperature history that determines whether it is still viable. Losing any of that renders the sample worthless, and freezers hold tens of thousands of them.

The data logger add-on connects to that directly, since temperature excursion records are what prove a sample remained viable.

An electronic laboratory notebook is offered alongside, and a compliance module addresses regulated environments.

Pricing is published, including a promotional bundle of a five user LabCollector licence with the ELN at half price, published at EUR 3000, with a EUR 25 figure also published.